I. DID. IT. (Now, About That 12-Hour Run.)

You guys have NO idea what a major step that was yesterday. I’m not sure I’ve ever broken the cycle I’ve been on for 7+ years as successfully as I did yesterday. I stuck to a new diet for X amount of weeks, had a bad binge day, and then went back on the diet successfully the next day. LIKE A BOSS. I’ve never done that. The binge day ALWAYS leads to more binge days until eventually I gain all the weight I lost back. If I’ve broken the cycle before I don’t think I’ve done it perfectly, like I did yesterday. Like – maybe I didn’t binge but I didn’t stick to the diet either. Or some middle-ground like that. But yesterday? I ate the calories MyFitnessPal told me to eat. (Which was a nice amount since I exercised TWICE!) And those little divine chocolates in that pictures? Are totally my new “dessert” which I find I really need after a meal in order to PUT AN END TO THE DAMN MEAL. Otherwise, I’m eating “dinner” for four hours.

Thanks for the help/support/commiseration. SERIOUSLY. Especially to my 4-month old nephew who sent me an encouraging video. (Possibly all on his own. Kids these days…they’re learning tech earlier and earlier.)

SO! Guess what’s on my platter next in the world o’ crazy running challenges? My first ever 12 Hour Run. I’ve mentioned it casually here and there as a thing that is coming up, but I haven’t gotten into the details.

The Race

It’s 12 hours on a 1-mile soft-surface loop. There’s a digital reader at the end of every loop that keeps track of your miles. There are two “competition” aspects of the race:
1) How many miles can you do in 12 hours OR
2) How fast can you do 50 miles
The second option is for those trying to claim one of the state records, as there are people who do that on this course every year as it’s basically the fastest 50 mile run you can do in the state.

I will be seeing how many miles I can do in 12 hours. OBVIOUSLY. Because I’m not living under any delusion of state records. And a lot (most?) don’t run the full 12 hours. They just run as much as the can for as long as they can and then they stop. Supposedly it’s really fun and social. I’ll report back on that later. I’ve been surprised that these races are actually social at times, I can see how this one would easily fit the bill.

My Goals

With a distance race my initial goal is always to finish under the time limit. But, with a race like this, there’s no distance…only a time limit. So, everyone finishes under the time limit! You have to set a distance goal. And my initial distance goal is 32 miles. Just to simply go further than a 50K which has been my longest distance run up until this point.

My second goal is to try to do 40 miles under 12 hours. I haven’t really trained with distance as much as I had wanted to originally when I considered doing this run. I peaked last weekend at 31 miles over two days. That will get me my 50K no problem. So, if I get my 50K in my slowest previous 50K time (8 hours) then that gives me 4 hours to do about 8 miles. I CAN WALK THAT. So, I think I’ll stick to 40 miles as my “initial” goal.

But – I do want to run the whole 12 hours. Or walk. Obviously I’m not going to actually be able to run the entire time. But I would like to be able to say I was running/walking for 12 hours and then have a good idea as to what distance I could do in that time. But, I do hear you get a little insane. (SURPRISE!) It’s easy to get dehydrated, no matter how well you try to avoid it. And 12 hours of doing anything physical is going to tend to make you a bit crazy. SO! That should be fun.

I think I’m as ready as I can be this time of year. Things immediately got crazy after the new year with shows at E’s school, so I’m not as solid as I was in the early winter with ultra distances, but I am confident my body can do the 32 miles. I’m just counting on my mind to get me through the final 8+.

A 12 Hour Run. I never even knew there was such a thing before last year! And now look at me…going into it like it’s NBD. I am often surprised by how casual I am about these things now, because the Previously-Non-Running Kim is sometimes still very loud inside my head and questioning my sanity on these endeavors.